Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 2905~ »affairs was his election as clerk of tlie Superior Court of Pierce County, anoffice "to which he gave one term. He was then defeated as a populist partycandidate for the same office. After that for four successive terms of fouryears each he filled the position of justice of the peace, and in 1912 wascalled to his present post of duty and responsibility when elected ordinaryfor four years. He tah^s much part in church affairs as well as in good citizenship, and is clerk of a Primitive Baptist Church.B. SHORT. Marion County claims as one of the representativemembers of its bar and as one of its progressive and public-spirited citizensWilliam Bascom Short, who is engaged in the successful practice of his profession at Buena Vista, the county seat, and whose ability and personal popularity have found testimonial in Ms being called upon to serve in the officeof solicitor of the county court and- also that of mayor of the fine little Georgia city in which he maintains his home. He holds secure prestige as one ofthe leading members of the bar of the Chattahoochee Circuit and has beenconcerned with much important litigation in its various courts,It is gratifying to note that in his native county Mr. Short has foundample opportunity for achieving success and precedence in his chosen profession, and he is a scion of a family whose name has been long and worthilyidentified with Georgia history. Mr. Short was born on the homestead plantation of his father in Marion County, and the date of his nativity was October29, 1861, so that he was ushered into the world shortly after the beginningof the great conflict that brought much of devastation to the fair Southland.He is a son of Eev. William Joseph Short and Nancy (Wallis) Short. Rev.William J. Short was born in Taylor County, Georgia, in 1834, and as a youthof about nineteen years he accompanied his parents on their removal toMarion County, in 1853. When the Civil war was precipitated on the nationhe manifested his unqualified loyalty to the causes of the Confederacy, andserved as a gallant soldier in a Georgia regiment during the entire period ofthe great internecine conflict. After the close of the war he engaged in thegeneral merchandise business at Brantley, and Buena Vista, Marion County,besides which he became one of the successful and prominent representativesof agricultural industry in this county and a man of benignant and potentinfluence in community affairs, especially through his effective service as aclergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, his ministerial laborshaving continued during the long course of sixty-eight years, and though hecelebrated his eighty-second birthday anniversary in 1916 he still officiates asa clergyman on special occasions, the while he is revered in the county thathas represented his home for many years. As a man of alert mind and wellfortified convictions, he has been well qualified for leadership in popularsentiment and action, and at the time when the populist party was at thezenith of its activities he became one of its leading representatives in MarionCounty, his hold upon popular esteem having been significantly shown whenhe was elected to the State Legislature on the populist ticket, and that in adistrict that was strongly democratic in its normal political status. He- wasan active and influential member of the legislative sessions in 1894-5 and hehas otherwise manifested his civic loyalty and public spirit, having an inviolable place in the confidence and high regard of all who know him. Mrs.Nancy (Wallis) Short was but thirty-eight years of age at the time of herdeath, was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, andwas loved by all who came within the compass -of her gentle and graciousinfluence. Of the seven children the subject of this review is the eldest, andone daughter died in infancy; Joseph B. is a representative cotton andfertilizer merchant at Buena Vista ; Dr. Bland P., who was graduated in theBaltimore Medical College, in the metropolis of Maryland, is engaged in thepractice of his profession at Newton, the judicial center of Baker County,